I paid 1.53 euro for this bottle of wine - about $2.33 NZD

No vintage statement, 12.5% alc/vol - quite light, slightly raspberry-ish, but not too bad for the price. Not on my list to drink more than once.

We arrived this morning with plenty of time for our visit to the Sagrada Familia - we took a taxi for 6.70 euro from the plaza near our hotel to right outside. We would not have wanted to walk this distance at all.

We took lots of photos and walk around the perimeter of the Church. We then decided that we would queue in line even though we were about 20 minutes early. There way only about 10 people in front of us.

We got to the lady at the gate who checked our tickets which i freshly printed yesterday since Pam seemed to have misplayed the ones I printed originally.

The lady said something and we thought she meant that we were too early to be admitted yet, but this was not the case at all.

Our tickets were for yesterday - we totally stuffed it up 100% - no entry

For some reason while in Mallorca we thought that our entrance was on Saturday not Friday which the tickets were for. We asked if we could buy new tickets and the lady said there were no tickets available for today at all.

Pam asked for a manager or person in charge and after a couple of minutes on the CB radio the lady said someone was coming.

A few minutes later a lady showed up who basically said the same thing - no tickets today or tomorrow - sorry no entry.

We said we had come from New Zealand and just got the dates wrong - we were on time but for the wrong day and she got on her CB radio for a few minutes and talked to someone else and in the end they let us in. We were so thankful.

We were allowed in - oh what a stuff up on our behalf - worst stuff up for a long long time

The exterior of the church was amazing but the light shining through the stained glass windows inside was amazing

This is not my photo but it looks really cool.

This is a diagram of the tower that I walked around - it started on the right with the elevator to about 50 meters and then across between 2 towers and then down 400 steps to the bottom. Interesting but probably not required as the inside/outside is the best.

This is the view from inside one of the towers towards the top of the tower.

The spiral staircase on the way down from the towers.

The view over Barcelona from one of the viewing areas in the Nativity tower.

We had a great time visiting this and it will be interesting to see if they complete it in time for 2026 which is the expected completion date.

We went out looking for a restaurant last night that we looked up online but right before it as in on the other side of the street was all you could eat Pintxos with Palella & a desert for 15 euro each.

Once inside we checked out the offering and ended up with just the all you could eat Pintxos for 12 euro. There was no way I could eat a palella and desert as well.

Pam really enjoyed them but I thought they were a bit of a lower quality than we had the night before. Maybe it was the drunken pommy slobs who were too loud for their own good and distracted everyone else from having a nice meal.

Pam decided on a rather large Sangria @ 7 EURO 

What you did not see is that we mainly ate the toppings and left the bread behind.

Yesterday when we arrived and visited the Picasso exhibition we walked past this little bakery with a sign for Pizzaa for 2 euro. We went in and bought a slice of pizza for 2.50 (2.0 was for a Margarita which is just cheese & tomato) - our slice was Champignons which is Mushrooms.

They were very good mushrooms and also had a truffle oil I assume on the slice. We both thought this is the best pizza maybe ever we have had.

A whole Margarita and some champignons and another slice.

The champignon slice

and again the champignon slice

This was just a little bakery that did things well - it was very very good.

For dinner we wanted to try some Pintxos again, so I did a search online and found a place quite close that good reviews.

When you enter you are given a plate and you just help yourself and in the end they count up the number of sticks and charge you based on that.

Anchovies with a nice puree on top along with little sliced garnish

I don't really know what this was but it was very nice.

Sliced Pork 

This was a terrine placed in side a thin crispy wrapper.

A cheese with a jam and nuts

Another cheese with a green pepper and sliced chorizo

A moose of tuna stuff in a pepper along with a little garnish of pikelet.

A breaded goat cheese.

A mouse or cream cheese along with something like Cherry Jam on top

The Pintxos each cost 2.10 Euro which was probably OK. We got charged 4 euro for a beer and 4 euro for a simple wine which seemed expensive compared to Madrid.

Unlike the Renia Sofia where we did not pre-book on line the Museo Nacional Del Prado museum was prebooked while still in New Zealand. It cost 15 euro for general entry. 

The place is amazing with so many paintings that you are just overwhelmed after a short while. Some of the pieces are huge - probably 25 feet high by 50 feet wide.

There was no signs to say no photos so I took a few until I was told not too.

We went to find the missing coffee shop today from yesterday but we found a nice church along the way - closed, but it looked nice from the street.

Instead of our coffee shop we found a market instead. It had the standard stuff of Fruit & Vegetables, Fish, Meat and a few nice shops that sold Sushi, and Pintxos.

We started with a coffee each (espresso at 1.20 euro each) - notice that nice little wine machine - I want one - it holds 4 bottles at a precise temperature - Cave Vinum - 156 Euro - so how do I get this and get it home?

We found a little place that did Pintxos and they were great, in fact the best thing we have had since arriving and cheap at 1 euro each - so much cheaper than the crap they serve in restaurants as Tapas.

After this feast we decided to walk to the local park and have a read and then go back and buy some food for dinner from the market.

Along the way back I needed a toilet stop so we stopped in another cafe and had a wine & beer and used their toilet.

Their wine was expensive at 4 euro per glass and Pam's beer was 2.50 euro so much better.

We went back to the market then and bought some bread, cheese, and ham.

We bought two types of ham so we could do a test with extremely different price points.

• Jamon Serrano - 29 Euro per KG
• Jamon Iberico Bellota - 195 Euro per KG

A master cutting the ham

Out ham trial with the cheaper Serrano Ham on the left @ 29 euro per KG, and the Bollota @ 195 euro per KG

Our results from our tasting comparison:

The two products are very different. The simple cheaper ham is very nice and easy to eat and is used on a lot of baguettes. The bolleto is a lot richer and has a lot more flavor and more interesting character with a sweet nuttiness. Is it worth 6 times the price? well try it and see for yourself.  

We are missing our puppies, it makes it even worse when we receive the following in an email.

Bolly has developed quite a limp.  He is quite happy in himself but I will see what he is like tomorrow.   Is there anything that they like specially to eat as Brie is looking rather thin.

After our sangria and a ham & cheese baguette it was time for the tour of the cathedral.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma, more commonly referred to as La Seu (a title also used by many other churches), is a Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral located in Palma, Majorca, Spain. Built by the Crown of Aragon on the site of a Moorish-era mosque, the cathedral is 121 metres long, 55 metres wide and its nave is 44 metres tall. By way of comparison, the height of the central nave reaches 33m in Notre Dame de Paris, 38m in Reims, 42m in Notre-Dame d'Amiens and 48m in Saint-Pierre de Beauvais, the highest of all Gothic cathedrals.

The cost was 7 Euro each.

The first section is the museum with some very impressive pieces.

This document was written in the 1200's

I quite liked this face of the man

Strange artworks - holding her own head   

The main alter is very impressive.